With less than five weeks to go before the presidential election,
Friday's September jobs report has become much more than a key
barometer on the overall economy.

Just minutes after the Labor
Department reported the lowest unemployment rate since
January 2009, former GE CEO Jack Welch weighed in on
twitter. "Unbelievable jobs numbers…these Chicago guys will
do anything.. can't debate so change numbers." (Note: the
ellipses are his.)

And the political debate over the jobs report begins with just
one more to go before the presidential election.

"It's a shock to hear that anybody can think that these numbers
were manipulated," say Lawrence Mishel, president of the Economic Policy Institute, in the
accompanying interview with The Daily Ticker. "Having followed these
numbers for 25 years and knowing the people who put them out it's
absolutely bizarre…It's outrageous. The data is based on surveys
of tens of thousands of employers and households every month."

Here are the numbers:

The Unemployment rate fell to
7.8% in September from 8.1% in August.

Nonfarm payrolls ticked up
114,000—all but 10,000 at private employers.

July and August payrolls were
revised higher by 40,000 and 46,000, respectively.

The workweek rose 0.1 to 34.5
hours.

Average hourly earnings ticked up
7 cents to $23.58.

The report was in line with economists' expectations but still
stocks reacted positively, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average
(DJI) rising to
its highest level in almost five years to 13,662.

The most positive parts of the report, says Mishel, who's also
co-author of The
State of Working America, is the rise in the employment to
population rate and the reasons behind it. It had been falling
for several months but rose to 58.7% in September—not because the
labor force is contracting but because more people are finding
work. The labor force participation rate rose to 63.6% from 63.5%
the month before.

Other highlights include: Government payrolls, which have been
contracting long term, gained 10,000 jobs but manufacturing jobs
fell by 16,000.

Mishel said the report shows a "nicely forward momentum" with a
substantial drop in the unemployment rate and a substantial
increase in the labor force, which rose by 418,000. But he says
the increase in payrolls is "not fast enough to get a rapid
decline in unemployment."